when we were daises
by Indie Tangles
Summary: Mike was doing a little impromptu happy dance, using Artie as a prop, and Kurt was tugging on Rachel's loose curls with a "we couldn't have done it without you, midget," and then Matt was giving out hugs and Kurt got caught in the crossfire./ Fame, RPF.
1. the seeds of it all

Rachel Berry leaned in slowly, hesitating in a way that she generally didn't. She wasn't looking at his face. Instead, she found her eyes lingering on his throat: the definition of his nearly-quivering Adam's apple and the hollow at the base of it. "You sure?" she whispered against the side of his face, which he kept smooth by shaving at sunrise and sunset, and sometimes during his lunch breaks.

He only swallowed. People were already starting to stare. Rachel pressed her lips against his, pressing the flat expanse of her palm against his heart, which was thump-thump-thumping hard, and poked at her hand through his ribcage. He didn't respond at first, and then he started to, moving against her mouth softly, curiously, but not quite sure.

Then -- Kurt shoved shoved Rachel Berry off of him by her shoulders. He heard the click of a camera, and voices, but he couldn't hear the specifics, only the buzz of excitement over the sound of his heart in his ears. "I'm sorry Rachel. It would never work between us."

"Is it," she sniffed, tears welling in her eyes, "someone else?"

"It's _men._"

"That does sort of make sense."

He caught her hand, swinging it between them like a child. "Let's still be BFFs, okay?"

(Rachel's hand is chapped, like she hasn't been using the moisturizer he bought her, and Kurt is displeased. Except, she's _Rachel, _and that's come to mean something more than _diva_.)

"Sounds good to me," she agreed easily. "You hungry?"

---

Except, that isn't where their story begins.

The seed of it: once upon a time, they're all just gleeks, and even Puck gets the occasional slushy facial. Once upon a time, they're the handicapped kid and the weird-gothic-stuttering-shybie-_could-she-have-anymore-stereotypes_-Asian, and the pregnant girl and the diva and the homo and and and. The point is, once, there were twelve of them.

And then they went to Regionals.

Which isn't to say that they won.

They put on an amazing performance, of course, a re-arranged _Tangled Up In Blue _and a the Black Eyed Peas' _I Got A Feelin'_ because they've always loved vocalizing instrumental solos, and _Forever In Blue Jeans_, and a song from The Lion King on Broadway, which Puck calls "too gay for even _his_ rep to survive," but who sang almost half of the song practically by himself, with only futile half-hearted complaints.

But this time, it's _regionals. _Which means real judges, with real knowledge about actual show choir.

"We were very impressed with your vocal range and talent, Miss Berry," the oldest judge told her, coincidentally catching her in the ladies' bathroom during the break between their set and Carmel's. Rachel practically glowed.

"But," she told her, after the winners had been announced. Rachel didn't want to hear anything from her: she had other places to be at the moment, other things to do. She had a heart to dislodge from her throat. The judge didn't seem to care. "Your solos, and the other boy's -- the tall one -- and Noah Puckerman's ... what they do is get your show choir out of the more complicated harmonies."

Rachel nods stiffly, trying not to cry. It was so easy for her to burst into tears when she wants to. It's holding them back that's hard.

"I just thought you might like to know. You're all very talented; you might have placed."

"I--" Rachel squeaked. "Thank you."

"There's always next year. You know, maybe."

"Maybe?"

"I just have a feeling you won't keep your amateur status for long," the older woman said, smiling, eyes crinkling at the corners.

Rachel felt (fractionally) less like she'd swallowed a brick.

When she goes back to the green room, Artie seems to have run out of energy to ram himself into the wall, and Tina was draped over his lap, head pillowed against his chest, Puck is glaring at a random patch of wall like it's just insulted his guns, simultaneously pretending not to care, and Finn had his arm wrapped (mostly) around Quinn, who's circumference had, by then, surpassed his (formidable) wingspan.

Only Kurt looked up when she entered. "Did you go threaten to sic the ACLU on the judges unless they recant?" he asks her. She immediately opened her mouth to snap at him, but it occurred to her that there was no bite in his voice. He was just miserable, and sarcasm was like, the entirety of his personality.

"No, sorry. Didn't think of that in time," she returned, tiredly.

"Bummer. Might have worked." Kurt slumped back over, but kept looking at her as he patted the space next to him for her. Rachel Berry wasn't accustomed to sitting on the ground, but she made an exception in the pursuit of friendship. (Or _frenemy hood_. That seemed more likely, back then.)

---

The bus ride back to Lima is agonizingly long. On the way up, Rachel and Mercedes had an impromptu diva off, after Rachel informed Puck that _she was quite capable of runs, but simply chose not to employ them. _Puck tried to pretend not to be involved in the sillier warm ups, and Mr. Shue lead them in a rousing rendition of _Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. _

The ride back to Lima is filled with a heavy silence, for the most part, and of course, they stop every ten minutes (it feels like) to let Quinn out to "brush her teeth" (her personal euphemism) in gas stations and Burger Kings and the occasional truck stop.

After the eighth stop, Mr. Shue even stops insisting on the buddy system.

"Are you _crazy_?" Finn and Puck say to him at the same time, and for a second, Rachel almost laughs, because they've sort of made up in an awkward kind of way, and Finn loves Quinn and Puck loves his baby, and together, they kind of make a family. And because of the look the boys give each other before Puck chin-nods at Finn, like a way-to-go from the past, before all the babygate drama.

When Quinn gets back, with Finn right behind her, Rachel starts to sing _Stand by Me _and one by one they join in. They sing the song way too long; and then Finn preforms a two minute air-drum solo, and then they all shlump against each other.

At some point, Finn says, "Don't worry guys; there's always next year."

And Rachel isn't being a pessimist when she says, "Maybe."

* * *

**J****ust a little idea I've been thinking about as a break from _Popular. _Thanks for everyone who reviews that; this one's for you. :) (Especially _Goldfish _and _Chamberlain._)**

**...Obviously I am obsessed with Kurt/Rachel brohood. This is probably going to be three parts long. **


	2. sprout like weeds

**I feel like this is all stupidly full of backstory-ish Glee bonding, but I'm still pretty sure it's going to be wrapped up by chapter four. Thanks for everyone for reading and reviewing and subscribing. It means a lot. (PS for more KurtRachel brohood -- clearly my favorite thing -- you should read _A Hard Won Go Ahead, _and _Popular_, which is what would have happened, imho, if Rachel had been getting a makeover for Puck.)**

* * *

Rachel Berry doesn't know how to make her own coffee in the mornings.

She knows how to _work _the coffee machine, technically, and she knows how to make a pot of coffee that most people would call pleasing to the taste buds, but Rachel is not most people.

Kurt Hummel is the only one who can make her a cup of coffee to her tastes, so most mornings he makes both of their cups, just the right amount of cream and sugar and a few drops of honey, tasting along the way to guide him.

Sometimes she wakes up first and he finds her sitting around their kitchen island, looking forlornly at the empty pot. He shoos her away to go brush her hair or get on the elliptical while he gets to work.

* * *

They sprout like weeds after the epic failure at regionals. (Didn't even _place. _This is _not _how Rachel had imagained it, but still.)

Quinn and Finn are still going to have a baby, and maybe they'll keep it and maybe they won't; the plan seems to change as often as the flavor of ice cream Quinn is craving, but the constant seems to be that Finn and Quinn will be _best freidns forever _and even Puck flutters around because he's the baby's _daddy_ and he really, really ... cares about her, or about the baby, or some mixture of the both. (He claims that it's only his spawn, now, that _maybe he had something with her, once -- or, he might have -- but no, not really _but Rachel knows that things hurt so much more when you give them the power to -- you can only get burned when you keep your fingers by the flame.)

Anyways, they kind of get wrapped up in their own tangle of drama, Finn and Quinn blissfully devoted when their eyes aren't straying, and Puck saying or doing or feeling anything he has to to keep himself close to his unborn baby girl.

One morning, Rachel comes to school to find "itch" spray painted across her locker. Which doesn't make sense, until Puck returns from rincing out his rag in the hallway water fountain. "Sorry, Rach," he says, dragging one hand through his mohawk. He looks a little embarrassed, and six months ago he would have added, _not that I care or anything, _when clearly he was scrubbing profanity off of her locker. "If its any consolation, keep an eye out for Danny Huckle's black eye."

Artie and Tina break up again, and Tina briefly dates "Other Asian" _(seriously guys my name is Mike I don't want to tell you again) _and they all make a lot of Asian jokes, but eventually, they break up, and then somehow, Rachel and Tina bond over a lonely friday night when Tina's _just _desperate enought to call her up. _I've got The Brothers Bloom and a tub of butter pecan ice cream... no, it isn't a musical, and yes, I know the "concequences" of dairy on my vocal cords, Rachel, you don't have to eat it, _and just when she's ready to give up, feeling stupid for even having tried to reach out to the Ice Princess of Glee, Rachel says, "Give me ten minutes; I'll bring italian ice." (Which, ew, Tina eats, for some reason, putting the butter pecan back in the freezer, and hiding it under bags of frozen peas and carrots in case Rachel goes all vigilante on her dairy products.)

When Brittany and Finn's grades nearly kept them from being eligible from competing in sectionals, they start a study group. It's only to keep Brittany knowlegeabkle enough about geometry that she doesn't have to cheat off of Becky Jackson's tests, because that's not cutting it anymore, and to teach Finn the coping skills Santana shamelessly calls "cheating inconspicuously" but Matt, as it turns out, is like, seriously smart. A _nerd, _Puck calls him, laughing at their group, but sometimes he sits in on their meetings, pretending he's not there unitl he gets into it and forgets himself. Apperently he's explained all of his own classes to himself in terms of football and sexual metaphors, and sometimes Matt can't get a particular point through Finn's thick head, and kind of throws up his hands. "Puck, a little help? Doesn't this kind of seem like there's a punting analogy hiding here?" and Puck sighs like it's the thousandth time he's had to explain instead of the first time he's talked all group. "Yeah, bro, it's like _this_..."

(Rachel Berry looks at him like he's a Tony, and they all know how she feels about metaphors.)

All in all, the second half of Rachel's sophomore year is kind of like a Dawson's Creek relationship roller coaster, which was how she always thought high school would be. (She got herself through middle school by reminding herself that high school would be different; she would find her Joey and Pacey friends, a boyfriend to duet with, and have a best friend to teach her how to braid hair and go bra shopping with -- she loved her dads, really, but there were some things that they simply weren't capable of experiencing with her. It didn't happen freshman year, and then it didn't happen some more, but all at once it did, and she couldn't help but think that all of those lunches she ate alone were worth it. She's still working on the boyfriend.)

She even, paradoxically most shocking and most natural, becomes friends with Kurt. He tells her _I'm sorry about the make-over, it was petty and you're actually really nice, and stop looking at me like that, you still have the most grating voice in all of Lima. _But she keeps looking at him like that, and then she's apologizing back and he tells her that he'd like to have a second chance at making her look delectable, because seriously, she has_ potential_, even if she covers it up in pantsuits and hideous sweaters.

(She gets asked out on her first date, first real date the monday after his weekend project. She turns him down, because she remembers being on the receiving end of a slushy from him once, he's on one of the teams she can't be bothered to remember, but she never forgets a letermans' number. It feels good, all the same.)

The Kurt she comes to know is still a brat, a smarmy fashion hound, but his bratty, smarminess is directed more at jocks in lettermans jackets, and when he leans in to catch her attention during class, it's not to whisper _manhands_ or RuPaul like the Cheerios used to, but to snicker about something he's thought of or the fact that yes, Mr. Shue is indeed looking well fed and looked after and quite frankly, he blames Mrs. P. (_You know, the redhead with the weird hair. By the way, he'd kill to be able to do something with the blouses._)

Three weeks after regionals, Mr. Shue is in the middle of making a speech about having fun and how he's so proud of them for becoming a _family _(and yes, he actually say that, and Kurt rolls his eyes, leaning in to whisper, "What idiot told him about the study group?") when he gets a phone call.

"Sorry guys," he frowns. "Do you guys mind if I take this?"

They tell him that of course they don't, and when he steps out of the glee room and out into the hallway, Mercedes hisses, "Seriously, guys, when he comes back, lets all vote on doing _Hate on me Hater _for the pep rally."

Puck shakes his head. "No way. I'm voting for _Wonderwall. _It's a classic, and we could all use _fake accents_."

"... I do like english accents," Finn piped, in this weird affirmation of their brohood. "Sorry Mercedes."

Through the little window in the door, they could see Mr. Shue pacing. Rachel watched him while she spoke. "I'll vote with you, Mercedes. I'd rather be doing on of showtunes we've been doing lately, but I also feel like there's a time and place for everything, and the pep rally will be neither of those, sadly."

"Thanks Rachel," she said, still eyeing Puck and Finn suspiciously.

"Guys!" Mr. Shue burst back in, face flushed and excited like he'd been after they brought him home first from sectionals. "I have some seriously great news."


	3. reaching towards the sun

**(Are you guys tired of Puckleberry and Hummery? I'm not sure if this story is going to have PB, so let me know what you guys think, but you know I can't get away from Hummel-Berry BFFhood, sorry.)**

**PS. Thank you so much to everyone for reading, favoriting and alerting. **

_

* * *

_

One morning Rachel wakes up to find six half-made cups of nutmeg coffee. She pokes one to find it's still warm.

"Kurt?" she says, when she pads into his study.

"I don't know -- I'm having an off morning, Berry, go try them all. One of them has to be bearable."

"What's wrong, K?" she frowns.

"Look at this," he says, pointing at the screen of his laptop.

"What am I looking at, Kurt?"

"Real people fiction. From the boards."

Rachel almost laughed, but Kurt's death glare stopped her. "You and Brittany again? You have to stop reading that nonsense. You know it's written by twelve year olds anyways."

He groaned in frustration.

"You did get paired up with her a lot during the _Glee!_ dances." she pointed out.

"I panic _one time,_" he moaned, hiding his face in his hands. She heard the rest of it in her head. Once you've climbed back into the closet...

"What do you want me to do about it?" she asked, weakly.

He looked up at her sharply. "_Raaaachel_. Do you love me?"

---

It started with a miscommunication.

Everyone knew that Rachel Berry was going to be a star. It was just a fact, that she'd be out of this cow town and onto a broadway stage before long.

What no one expected was that she'd bring them all with her.

---

"Guys ... I just got a call from someone who wants to be your agent." Mr. Shue was practically glowing. "He was at regionals."

That was all it took; it was like when Rachel had announced their commercial, except, ten times cooler, and of course, this time they were actually friends, so while Finn and Quinn practically sucked each other's faces off, Puck was high-fiving Tina and Mike was doing a little impromput happy dance, using Artie and his chair as a prop, and Artie was laughing and Kurt was tugging on Rachel's loose curls with a _we couldn't have done it without you, midget, _and then Matt was giving out impromptu girl-aimed hugs, but got caught up in the moment and Kurt got caught in the crossfire.

"Um," Kurt said from his arms, feet not reaching the ground. He turned pink almost immediately.

Matt stopped twirling him and set him down, blushing. No homo.

Puck was cracking up, but also sort of distracted, because Santana and Brittany were leaned over in their chairs with their heads tilted like they were _just taking _(Like Santana was _ever _satisfied with just talking) but Puck was pretty sure they were about to kiss.

Later, Mr. Shue asked Rachel to stay after spanish class.

"Rachel," he says, eyes looking crazier than his grasshopper ex-wife. "I made a mistake. A really stupid, stupid mistake."

And right now Rachel's thinking that Mr. Shue went back and regraded all of her Spanish work from the beginning of the year and it turns out she's actually failing and not academically eligible for glee, and all of he dreams are now out of her reach and and and, because that's the way her minds races before she can get a hold of it.

"What's wrong?"

"Mr. Stevens ... he wants _you_."

And then her heart is fluttering sickly, and she should be ecstatic.

This is exactly what she always meant to do, or at least, geting an agent is the first step, and then one day everyone who ever called her manhands or stubbles or had ever thrown a slushy on her face would be _so regretting it, _especially when she named them by name in her interview with Oprah or Tyra about moving on from _bullied_ to _successful actress / broadway star / recording artist. _

"Well," she starts, and part of her brain is trying to take emergency control of her mouth and shove a sock in it, "tell him that we're a team. That we've got an amazing dynamic and ... and ..." it would settle for killing her entirely, so she wouldn't say this next part. She swallowed thickly. "Tell him that it's all of us, or none of us."

Mr. Shue looks surprised and confused and fatherly all at once, and for a few moments, just stares at her. Finally, the bell rings, and he looks up at the intercom, surprised. "I'm ... really proud of you, Rachel."

"I know," she says, and then has to go excuse herself to go kill herself in the bathroom.

Except, she feels kind of ... good about it. Go figure.

---

He meets them and sizes them up, and takes them all to be interviewed in a corner of the glee room, around which he sets up a curtain. When he sends Finn out, he looks incredibly pleased, and is glowing just looking at Puck, and he's looking iffy at Quinn's belly, but he probably recognizes that with how enormous she is, it won't be an issue soon. He comes out of the corner with Mike literally cracking up, and talks to Rachel for the longest time.

None of them worry about being overheard, because the rest of them are so excited outside that they can't keep quiet.

"Are you sure about this? I mean, I saw you and I _knew. _You could do anything. But this group? It's so big -- where could I sell a group this big?"

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Have you _heard _us?"


End file.
